It’s hard enough to find an error in your code when you’re looking for it; it’s even harder when you’ve assumed your code is error-free. – Steve McConnell

I have spent a good majority of my time fixing bugs in my career as a software developer. In fact, I have been spending the past month or so doing only that. It can become monotonous at times but I always enjoy the challenge of finding that little piece of code that just doesn’t quite fit and then coming up with a solution to the problem. Often times, what looks like a simple fix turns into a complex and time-consuming effort, but I always basque in the pride of solving the problem.

Life at times is very much like a software bug.

The first step in fixing a problem in our life is to deeply identify it. We need to understand what it is that is going wrong before we can even begin to come up with a possible solution. There are times that when we believe we know what our problem is, only to end up making things worse with an incorrect or incomplete solution. Often times we get so consumed with fixing our solution that we tend to forget the original hindering problem.

Sometimes what looks like a small problem in our lives ends up being a complicated beast. Once you get into the middle of your resolution, things can get thrown at you that you never anticipated and what seemed like a small problem only becomes huge. Alternatively, sometimes what seems like a major “show-stopping” problem in your life only requires a small fix. The key in all of this is that you need to identify with your problem then stay resolved in achieving a solution to it.

Over the past month, I have been pecking away at the bugs in our software at work. I somehow had plunged into my own personal rut or life bug if you will. I had become complacent with things and I was avoiding a huge bug that has been holding me back for awhile. Not wanting to become a poster boy for childhood abuse and not wanting to constantly be revisiting my past, I had been putting off a fix for awhile, hoping it would just solve itself. Well, it isn’t.

My problem is that I need to have my day in court, I need closure of a process that I had started 3 years ago when I reported my childhood abuse to the police. Since my complaint, I have been strung along with a bunch of time-wasting rhetoric from the justice system. I thought that I would be content with this process and not allow it to get in the way of my healing. Problem is, as time passes by I am realizing that I need to get a resolution to this before I can really move past it. I have only been patching solutions to my life bug but I can never seem to get rid of it. Now, I only have one possible solution: to fight the system that is designed to serve me but isn’t.

I realize that this blog posting is complete bullshit until I begin to dig in and resolve the bug in my life. This posting only stands to remind me of what I need to do in order to move forward. My solution may come very easy to me or it might become downright frightening. Either way, there can be no more patches. I will not grow as a person until I get this process behind me. I know how it feels to resolve a huge bug in my work life. I gain confidence, I gain knowledge, I grow as a software developer.  I can only imagine what it would feel to resolve the biggest bug of my life!